1st week of May 2010

Garlic Bed The weather has been wonderful for garden work. The rain helped soften up the ground again and warm days make it hard to stay indoors. This week we are officially ending our morning school routine and replacing it with "outdoor education." The older ones have a few projects to complete in the afternoons and it feels good to be finishing up another school year. With each child responsible for their own garden area in addition to helping in mine, hopefully they will continue learning over the summer in different ways. One area they are helping me with is the garlic beds. Every two weeks the plants get foliar fed with a solution of Bio Seed Boost (mixed by an Amish friend), calcium and ocean minerals. Most of the beds are mulched with shredded leaves and only need spot weeding but a few areas have a thistle issue that will take some work. I am pleased with how the garlic is coming along and am hoping for large heads that will make for excellent seed garlic to sell. Other alliums that we worked with lately are planting out the onions, leeks and shallots I started from seed. Most of them are not much more than small threads and I was glad to get them in the ground just before a gentle rain. The leeks were planted in a trench that will get filled in as they grow to blanch their stems. )

Mothers Day Cards The forecast this week has several days in the 70s and one in the 80s which means it's time to move the trampoline cold frame from the lettuce bed to bean and zinnia rows. I have to keep the greenhouse well ventilated and watered on warm days too. My calendar says it's time to start some melon and gourd seeds indoors this week plus plant a summer lettuce mix. More tomatoes are outgrowing their 4 packs and need to upgrade to roomier pots. I'm tempted to put some of them directly in the ground with all the warm weather but I know there is still a good chance of frost. So a few will get tucked under barrels and the rest will need to stay cozy in the greenhouse. Mother's Day is coming up also and here are some of the plantable cards we made to celebrate. They are available at Local Roots or directly from me for $3.50 each. For my mom, she won't get one of the wildflower growing cards but instead we will plant her flowerbed with annuals from the greenhouse as a Mother's Day gift. My flowerbeds had some new additions this week after our trip to a perennial exchange over the weekend. Our daughter added more hostas, Lily of the Valley, Lungwort, Wild Geraniums, Columbine and Sweet Woodruff Groundcover to her shade garden under the cherry tree and I scored an astilbe, a striped grass, red lilies, several mums and more. What fun to add new things in exchange for digging up some extras!

Bluebell and Hollyhock The last Oberhasli goat to kid had a set of twins late Saturday night. Willow gave birth to Cherry and Buckeye who are completely adorable. Our children make many trips to the barn each day to play with all the kids who are very people friendly. There are also Hereford calves showing up every week. They can be petted in the first few days but after that they run wild through the pastures. Last week Hollyhock and Columbine were born on the same day. Olin needs to reduce his herd size so he has some grassfed Hereford brood cows for sale, some as cow/calf pairs. You can view their photos here, contact him for pricing.